If you’re planning to make a big meal on Thanksgiving, you might want to start planning now. These are the kitchen gadgets you should pick up now, so you can be ready when the big day arrives.
As Always, An Instant Pot
Your kitchen is going to be overwhelmed on Thanksgiving, with food on all four burners, and in the stove. The more you can offload to the counter the better. Few kitchen tools are as good at this job as the Instant Pot. At around $100 for the 6 quart model (though it’s frequently on sale), this indispensable gadget can make a lot of your side dishes. Lifehacker demonstrates how you can use an InstantPot to make deviled eggs and mashed yams, but you can use it for any number of side dishes.
If you’re cooking for a really big gathering, there’s also an 8 quart model available.
A Dedicated Slow Cooker
Your Instant Pot can pull double duty as a slow cooker, but if you don’t want a pressure cooker (or have already assigned yours some other task), a dedicated slow cooker can spend the day cooking some foods for you so you can focus on something else. This programmable Hamilton Beach 6 quart slow cooker can keep your mashed potatoes warm, or cook dishes like ham and stuffing.
A Sous-Vide Circulator
If you’ve never used an immersion circulator, Thanksgiving is a great time to try one. The Anova Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Precision Cooker for $130 is one of the two best consumer-level sous vide gadgets on the market. You can use it to cook most kinds of meat, including the best Thanksgiving turkey you’ve ever had, or even a pumpkin pie for dessert.
It’ll take a little longer to heat up your water, and doesn’t include Wi-Fi, but the new Anova Nano is a great alternative if you’re short on shelf space.
You can get by with nothing but the circulator, a stock pot, and some plastic bags, but you can really up your sous-vide game with these extra accessories.
A Good Turkey Carving Kit
If you’re making a turkey, you’re going to want something to carve that bird up. You can start with a simple, two-piece set like this one from Messermeister that starts at $40. It comes with a turkey carving knife and fork that cover the basics, and makes a fine starter kit if this is your first time cooking a bird. If you’d rather go full Dexter, Mercer offers a variety of kits like this 10-piece kit for $231 which comes with a chef’s knife, pairing knife, bread knife, and several of those other essential knives you should have in your kitchen.
Microwave and Oven-Safe Baking Dishes
The microwave is a perfectly fine cooking method on Thanksgiving for some foods. We won’t judge you if you put a bag of frozen vegetables in the microwave for an easy side. For a mere $14, Corelle has a 6-piece set of dishes in several sizes. If you’d rather have something that can double as an oven-safe dish, this $18 Pyrex four-piece set is made of glass, and can easily be sealed when your dishes inevitably become leftovers.
Have any other suggestions? Drop them in the comments!